Perfect Summer Weather

Above is the white rose mallow (Hibiscus moscheutos 'Blue River II') as seen at Allen Centennial Gardens (ACG) yesterday. The blooms are almost 12" across and very showy. When I started at RBG 13 years ago, we had a huge bed of these types of hibiscus and it was an awesome showing for the three weeks in late July and early August when they peak. However, not too much interest in the "off time" so we evenually relocated them. I'd like to incorporate more of these but the Japanese beetle enjoys nibbling on this dessert plant quite vigorously. Two other neat things I saw at ACG included a raised, square foot garden (to the left) and a raised, accessible planter (to the right). These look neat and I think we'll build a couple and help spread the word that gardening can happen in small spaces and can become more accessible as we get older or limited in some fashion. Below is a shot of our 'Coffee Cups' elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta) that looks better (and bigger) each week and is really living up to its name with the cupped leaves. We had a great day today although I didn't get any large projects completed except spraying herbicide in some weed war zones. I had lots of small projects and we spent time preparing for our seven weddings on Saturday. Marv and Terry installed some edging, mowed and did lots of watering in case we don't get that rain Sunday. Marianne weeded, tidying, put together her cutting display, fertilized and watered. Janice mowed and took care of watering containers. Little Jerry and Bill did a great job mowing and I think we always appreciate Dr. Gredler's "mowing contribution" more when he is gone. Both Jerry and Bill also helped tidy up the garden for our weekend visitors. Nice shot below of Autumn moor grass (Sesleria autumnalis) which is just starting to bloom and will have this nice look well in to October. This grass, reaching only 20", is from Europe and is highly promoted by Roy Diblik of Northwind Perennial Farms (www.northwindperennialfarm.com/). We had more great volunteers today. Kay came in and bopped around weeding our hot spots and was later joined by Mary D. (who also weeded every tree circle in the arboretum). The ladies did a great job as usual and it's neat seeing them interact with the public and answering questions, promoting the gardens and really being valuable ambassadors. Dr. Yahr was in to weed and Maury stopped by as well. Mary was out weeding in the garden and we also saw Vern, Rose, Urban, Big John (weeded!), and many others. To the right is the ebony plant (Eranthemum nigrum) which has the "closest to black" leaves I've seen. This tropical can reach 36" or so and I recall seeing in bloom at Chanticleer (Wayne,PA) last summer. We're using this plant in our maroon/red theme and have used it for many years in container arrangements. Another nice tropical accent can be seen to the left (at ACG). I've featured this grass in previous blogs and we have over 500 out in the gardens this summer. This is the 'Fireworks' fountain grass (Pennisetum 'Fireworks') that works as a 30" accent in the full sun border or container. Below is a paper wasp nest that we found (and left alone!) today. The architecture of this next is truly amazing and complex. Neat stuff. Nice shot of the gazebo at the bottom (although the shot is a bit akimbo).

A Day Off With A "Plant Fix"!

I took the day off today and the wife and I dropped our daughter off up in Madison, WI where she is participating in a dance camp this week. We made a nice day of it in Madison and the weather was nice at around 82 degrees F and sunny. I did get my plant fix today and it was nice to have a day off (although my wife would argue that it wasn't actually a day off as I took many plant pictures today too...). We went shopping over at Greenway Station (www.greenwayshopping.com/) in Middleton and their landscaping was unexpectedly quite nice. As seen above, it included many annual beds [that's castor bean (Ricinus communis 'Carmencita Red') in the center of the top photo), bioswales for parking lot runoff and nice bold containers. We walked thru a little farmer's market and later went further downtown on an unsuccessful quest for a smoothie (too early I think at 11 am). We then travelled to Allen Centennial Gardens (www.horticulture.wisc.edu/allencentennialgardens/) which is a beautiful 2.5 acre teaching garden on campus that Ed Lyon, former Executive Director for RBG, manages and does a great job. He gave us a great tour along with Ed G. and Dylan (photo further down is Ed L. with my wife, Amy). We went out to lunch and had time later to go to a bookstore then pick up our little one. The gardens looked great. The two plant shots below include the 'Black Magic' elephant ear (Colocasia esculenta 'Black Magic') on the left and 'Hot Papaya' coneflower (Echinacea) which is the first double orange selection from the Netherlands. While the flowers are beautiful, they were a bit floppy for my taste. Ed had a nice collection of coneflowers to evaluate and the gardens are going thru many improvements with hardscaping and planting. Surprisingly, not many know about the gardens (even in Madison) and Ed has made great progress in exposing/promoting the garden to the public.

A Busy Free Day Despite The Drizzle

Today, as the first Wednesday of August, was one of our "free days." These free days, along with a free week in both May and September, were selected to help encourage more visitors to the garden, particularly those that aren't able to afford standard admission fees or a membership. Today was like those free day opportunities prior in that there were hundreds of visitors throughout the gardens (see two photos above). I have to say that, aside from some minor issues, the gardens look spectactular right now and the light drizzle from 10 am until noon or so didn't seem to thwart those interested in seeing the gardens. Mike M. came up with the idea of staging garden docents around the gardens on these days to help answer questions, guide visitors and in general, make for a better visitor experience, particularly for those new to the gardens. I saw Chuck, Art and Mary out with visitors and you couldn't ask for three better RBG representatives. I had my camera with me all day so couldn't resist more "foliage interest shots" with ornamental hot peppers (Capsicum annuum) seen to the left and right. To the left is 'Sparkler' which I've featured below and to the right is 'Purple Flash'. 'Purple Flash' is also part of our American Garden Award program and is one of the four plants that can be voted upon by visitors yet this month (www.americangardenaward.com/). I love the variable foliage and the contribution of the ornamental fruits will certainly increase over this month. Two more blooms can be seen below. Directly below is 'Maya' gloriosia daisy (Rudbeckia hirta)l that is a beautiful, dwarf double and further below is the fanciful 'Tinkerbell' flowering tobacco (Nicotiana hybrida) which has subtle lime green, dangling trumpets with pink throats. Both of these are Fleuroselect (Europe) winners.
We had a solid retinue of grounds staff and volunteers today. Larry spent most of the day weed whipping and running irrigation as needed. He also filled in for Dr. Gredler (vacation) and ran to the dump and out for supplies. Big John continued to dig and remove some overgrown perennials and planted some daylilies as well. He moved on to fertilizing two garden spaces and all the containers (a two hour job to get to all of them). Marianne worked on weeding, tidying up, watering and other projects. Little Jerry was here to work in the Japanese Garden. Marv and Terry teamed up for planting, edging installation and did a nice job leveling a small brick path that had become a tripping nuisance due to nearby roots from a honeylocust (Gleditsia triacanthos f. inermis 'Sunburst'). See Marv's palpable enthusiasm below... Bill came in to do some mowing and has done a superb job filling in for Dr. Gredler. Bill also collected debris later on and is one of our most meticulous volunteers. Kay and Margaret worked together weeding two large areas and did a bang-up job as usual. They are a great team and would also fall in to that meticulous category with their attention to detail and total transformation of an area. Jumbo Jim brought down four RECAPPERS and they worked on placing limestone rocks along the border between the rose garden and alpine garden. We've always had a problem with this transition as we've felt that some sort of physical separation would help. The fellas did a fine job and will finish this project up in short order. Suzy was here working with three teenagers (community service) and they worked on weeding and did well in the heat (although both Suzy and one of the boys got stung by ground hornets! ugh!). We also saw Dr. Yahr, Maury, Karen, Julie, Kay F., and George. To the left is 'Peter Pan' dwarf goldenrod (Solidago hybrida 'Peter Pan') and to the right is a perennial black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia speciosa 'Viette's Little Suzy') that is compact at 18" and very floriferous; here combined with Tiger Eyes sumac (Rhus typhina 'Bailtiger'). Directly below, our laser engraver is poised to become active in two weeks. It will be nice to start the conversion of all of our labels to a more professional format and this device also has potential to engrave items for our gift shop, special events, etc. The bottom photo was sent to me from Kathy who saw this VertiGarden planting of New Guinea impatiens at the Ball Seed Field Days last week. See www.vertigarden.co.uk/ for more information on this interesting planting approach that has lots of applicability in narrow spaces or along longer vertical expanses that can use the "greenery". Interesting...

Sun After A Soaker

Nice shot at the top of our ornamental hot pepper (Capsicum annuum 'Chilly Chili') at the Horticulture Center starting to color up nicely. This variety is known for very little culinary heat and serious ornamentality as the summer season progresses. This variety is also a vary common bedding plant. Our cucumbers and gourds are growing like crazy and it seems the tomatoes and peppers are starting to catch up with some hotter days coming along. Above is Ron W. yesterday with our umbrellas heading back to the terrace garden. Today was fairly light in terms of staff and volunteers but the morning was quite busy before it got real hot and muggy. Larry was in to push mow and work on some other projects for a portion of the day while Big John worked on removing some perennials that have increased in girth and require total removal. He then moved to pushmowing as well. Bill was here to help with riding mowing with Dr. Gredler gone and Little Jerry was here to prune and mow as well. Margaret, Hal and Doris were all here to weed in various locations and we also saw Maury, Dick H. and some others. The shot to the left is a recent image of our ornamental edible wall planting (maintained by Tom K.). Plants are really starting to fill in well and our intent of both an ornamental and edible/functional planting has been achieved in my mind. To the right is a portion of our globe amaranth (Gomphrena sp.) collection that is maturing nicely. Despite 50 or so different varieties, most of these fall in to pink, purple, lavender, magenta and white although there are some bright fuschia ones, red and orange too. Gomphrenas don't hit you over the head with overpowering color but are nice in compositions for their architectural, long-lasting blooms. I've mentioned the garden activity of "air edging" many times and thought I'd show as sample (below) of this process below. Bob T. is our resident expert and he does a bang up job creating a crisp edge of separation between turf and flower beds. Unfortunately this has to be done every year but adds a nice touch when done properly. One of the tricks is not to make the edge too deep or mowers will scalp that edge.

We continue to get ready for the upcoming iris sale (Aug. 28) and fall plant sale (Sept. 11-17, presale on the 10th for Friends Members). In a couple of weeks we'll have our new laser engraver up and running after our consultant helps us set it up and iron out the bugs. We have Luis doing a new woody plant inventory that will help us jump right in to making new labels through the rest of the year. It is so tough to keep enough labels out there as they sometimes disappear, get obscured with expanding foliage or are never installed. Sometimes frequent questions from visitors will prompt us to create a quick label for that high interest plant. Marianne also targets these types of plants for her cutting display. One of those "high interest" plants is always the tropical Persian shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus) seen to the left. The leaves are hard to describe but so memorable when you see them. We have this tropical in containers and throughout our part shade beds and borders. Purchased in 4" pots in spring, we'll get this plant up to 24" or so although I've seen it bigger. I'd like to experiment with trying to overwinter this annual as a houseplant for re-use the next year (and perhaps gaining greater size!). Another ornamental edible can be seen to the right. This is 'Fernleaf' dill (Anethum graveolens) that was an All-America Selections winner and is known for its compact nature (30") and many flower umbels. Dill is a great bedding plant and quite showy as a cut flower. The flowers are edible and this plant could have a future in your dill pickle processing. Below is the foliage of the Ghost weigela (Weigela florida 'Carlton') that while having the standard fuchsia pink trumpet blooms in spring, has notable lime green foliage in spring that fades to a ghostly buttercream in summer. We plunked this in as a baby many years ago (now 4'x4') and it continues to catch my eye simply from that foliage.

The Summer Peak

As I toured the gardens this morning, I really felt that we are peaking with our summer color, particularly with annuals. The sunken garden was looking great and the image above is along the north side of that space (taken care of by Bob, Chris and August). The tall, arching plants in the back with violet pink flower clusters is the 'Gateway' Joe-pye weed (Eupatorium maculatum). By saying that we are "peaking", I'm certainly not stating that it's downhill from here. We maintain our seasonals until frost and the next 10 weeks should still be quite colorful with plenty more perennials and woody plants adding interest. I'm glad we've had some nice, recent rains and it's raining right now as I type in the evening. We've been amazed by the bumper crop of weeds this year but are starting to catch up. Wet soils allow for some nice pulling of our undesireable woody tree seedlings (cottonwood, honeysuckle, buckthorn, hackberry, elm, etc.). To the left is another plant in the sunken garden. This is a neat new amaranth (Amaranthus paniculatus) called 'Autumn Palette'. Although we've grown many amaranths in the past, this one is new to me and I'm glad it is coloring up like its description (cream and biscuit tones). Most amaranths are a solid color so this is a neat effect on a 5' tall+ plant. To the right is another collection of cucumbers picked by Janice's volunteers this past Saturday. Bev D. hauled these to the local food bank today where I'm sure there were comments about the weird looking cucumbers. Below is a close-up of the marbled nasturtium (Tropaeolum majus 'Alaska Mixed') with variable creamy mottling in the leaves and an assortment of yellow, orange and red flowers. This plant has edible leaves and flowers and is always part of our ornamental edible displays. Further below is the hybrid gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta 'TigerEye Gold') that I've featured in past blogs. It sure looks good en masse and I find that gold color tone quite agreeable.
We had another productively busy Monday. Marv and Terry bounced around between regraveling, removing some plants, fixing irrigation, watering and other tasks. Marianne did a good job tidying up the front garden, weeding the terrace, putting together her cutting display and some spot hand watering. Little Jerry did some nice pruning and worked on projects in the Japanese garden. We're without Larry for a bit and Dr. Gredler and Janice are gone this week so we'll be a bit thin on staff but will manage. We had a nice Grumpy morning with Gary, Charlie, Ron B, Urban and Dick K. working on regraveling projects. Ron W., Pat and Bob C. put our terrace furniture, umbrellas, etc. back in place after a big wedding this past Saturday and moved on to some other tasks. Bob T. worked on air edging and the "carpenter quartet" of Vern, Bob A., Dave and Jim worked on starting to replace rotting lumber along our Japanese garden fence. They ran in to a ground hornet nest which caused some excitement and only one sting. Mary and Winnifred were here weeding and the fence crew of Dick P., Dick H., Maury and Big John did a nice job installing more fence but were slowed down a bit after they hit an irrigation line. Dr. Yahr was here helping out and we also saw Mike, Dave, Polly, Carol C., Tom U. and others over here. The shot to the left is our ornamental millet (Pennisetum glaucum 'Purple Majesty') starting to go to seed and being quite attractive to the yellow finches. This species of millet is also called pearl millet and is a very important food crop, particulary in Africa. We are growing four varieties of this species known for a more ornamental leaf coloration ('Purple Majesty', 'Jester', 'Purple Baron', 'Jade Princess') and as an annual grass, they are all effective in the border or container (research their variable heights though). To the right is the 'Bull's Blood' beet (Beta vulgaris) that we use in our ornamental border and in our maroon/red theme. With edible beets (later) and edible foliage, this is a beautiful, yet utilitarian plant for the home garden and container. Speaking of our maroon and red theme, we had more compliments today and even those that don't like the overall color combinations have conceded that it is impressive in scale and texture (I'll take that). Below we have the 'Cherry Brandy' gloriosa daisy (Rudbeckia hirta) that is planted throughout our gardens and the bottom photo is the terrace border after Marianne's ruthless weed purging.

California Re-Cap (Part 2 of 2)

All the images in this posting are from the Getty Center which I visited on Wednesday, July 21st (my first day of arrival in the City of Angels) . I was given a wonderful tour of the grounds by Michael, the Director of Horticulture for the facility. The architecture of the buildings, layout of the grounds and overall visual impact of this campus is truly amazing. Built in 1997, this campus houses the Getty Foundation, Getty Research Institute, Getty Conservation Institute, the J. Paul Getty Trust and the Museum. Michael and I walked around for a good two hours and talked about the gardens and the facility. His badge got me in to some top secret areas in the museum and his enthusiasm for his job is quite apparent. To describe all the work that this facility accomodates would be difficult so check out their website (www.getty.edu/) or the Wikepedia site is quite informative. Regardless, the landscape, though very contrived, was quite impressive and I couldn't believe the amount of detail involved with their maintenance. Michael mentioned that they will even get up in an allee' of sycamores and pull off every other leaf to create the right dappling of summer shade that the garden designer emphasizes. Wow. The images of trimmed, curvilinear shrubs surrounded by water in many of the shots below are a centerpiece of the largest garden. These are 400 azaleas representing three colors that are a solid mass in March. The entire experience was fun and a special thanks to Michael for his valuable time.